D I V O R C E by cmsix

Chapter 20

We did things the polite way this time, for all the difference it made. I stopped about two hundred yards out from George's place and Nancy gave the birdcall high sign. It was answered at once and we drove on in to see most of the bunch standing around waiting for George to greet us.

After he did Louise sprang the question on him and he agreed right away. He called Sky over and I suppose asked him if he'd do it or told him to do it or whatever, but I knew everything was jake when Sky started nodding his head and then smiling. Five minutes later we were headed home with Louise patiently explaining, "Get Sky morning."

That night we had smoked javelina with Ranch Style Beans and frybread and it was great. Louise even let me have a couple of long necks from outside and when I wanted to put a six-pack in the refrigerator for next time she gave me permission.

I didn't realize what had made the beer so acceptable this time until the three of them led me back outside and near the kegs. The significance of the big two-handled stainless steel cooling barrels hit me just as Louise was trying to figure out a way to ask me what they were for. I'd completely forgotten about the damned things.

The guy at the liquor store had insisted I take them too, since there was one for every keg and apparently he didn't want the empty barrels around when there was no keg of beer to go in them, especially since he knew I had cash money. I didn't want to argue at the time so I just paid for them like I did the kegs.

They would be even better for cooking than the damned cast iron wash pots were. I didn't waste time before letting Louise and the girls know that they were welcome to them.

"Should we give George and his camp a few?" I asked, and I know she understood this part.

"Trade George," Louise said.

What the hell/ I didn't know what they wanted to trade for but it was fine with me, as long as we didn't trade away the beer. I was stingy enough to want it all for myself anyway, besides the fact that I didn't want a bunch of drunk wild assed Indians running around so close, even if they were polite most of the time.

I had no way of knowing if the cowboy movie version of inebriated Indian behavior had any basis in fact or not, but I didn't want to take any chances. In the first place I didn't like to be around anyone that was drunk; white, black, yellow, or red, drunks were a large pain in the ass. I don't remember ever being drunk myself except that first time I got another fool to buy me two half-pints of Early Times bourbon when I was fourteen.

I had enjoyed my two favorite beers, Lone Star or free, often since then but I hadn't enjoyed being drunk that first time and certainly hadn't liked the commode hugging or the hangover the next day. Two or sometimes three beers were all I wanted at one time since the Early Times fiasco. I might be a redneck but I could tell right from wrong and being drunk was just wrong, for me anyway. They could trade the barrels but I'd be keeping all the beer.

The news really thrilled them too, and they took me inside, put me to bed, and then tried to wear me out.

After our oatmeal and some more frybread for breakfast we piled in the truck and went to fetch Sky and his crew. He brought three with him and though I offered, he rode in the back with them. We stopped at my place and hooked the U-Haul, which surprised them, and then we were on our way.

At the turn off we'd taken yesterday I stopped and unhooked the trailer, leaving it there. It rattled like hell on these roads and there was no sense announcing our presence. I even slowed down from my normal eleven mile per hour pace as we neared where I remembered the big clearing was.

Damned if the buffalo weren't still there. They'd even moved a couple hundred yards closer to the road but they didn't seem to notice when we arrived.

I took the Barrett out of its case, loaded two clips, and then found a good spot to lie down and take advantage of its bipod mount. Sky, his bunch, and the girls moved off several yards behind me and I looked to make sure they had their fingers in their ears. They did, and I commenced firing.

I shot the biggest one first, a large bull, and the others didn't even flinch when it went down in a heap. With the scope I could make a better count and there were eight adults and four calves. I didn't know anything about how much usable food could be had from one buffalo but I did know we'd be better off with more than we needed than less than we needed so I took my time and shot all the adults.

Sky and his crew started walking out toward them then, to keep watch I guess, and Louise and the girls went right along too. I figured they'd be safe enough and went back to get the trailer. I was back in only a few minutes and drove right up to the site.

The calves were fairly small ones and they were standing around wondering what was going on. They had moved off a few yards but since no one was bothering them they didn't go far. No doubt Sky and his guys thought I'd already killed more than we could deal with so they hadn't bothered taking the calves.

Even Louise and the girls were surprised when I unhooked the trailer and then hooked it back to the hitch in front. I jockeyed it around and got its back doors headed straight toward the center of the group of kills and then got out and opened the doors. When I pulled the ramp out of its storage place everyone but me was surprised again and then I went to the winch and started unwinding cable.

I passed the hook through the hole I had installed and asked Louise to come pull the cable out while I went back to the winch and worked the control. She did fine and even yelled for me to stop when she reached the first customer.

Of course Louise, Helen, and Nancy knew about the winch by now but Sky and the others didn't. They knew something was going on but weren't sure what. As I started winching the first buffalo toward the trailer they hooted and smiled, and were only too happy that all they needed to do was provide a little guidance on the trip up the ramp.

Of course the cable made its hole larger where it passed through the trailer's front wall but I'd expected that. It took us a little over an hour to load all eight adults but we didn't even break a sweat, and it was a lot faster than we could have done it any other way.

The calves were still standing around looking forlorn and I got a bright idea. I knew I had a good lariat behind the truck seat; in fact I'd had to move it when I was trying to make a place for the Barrett's case the other day. I went and fetched it and then came back around toward the back of the trailer.

It took quite a bit of hand waving and rope throwing examples before I made Louise understand what I wanted them to do, but she finally caught on and told the others. They meandered off, making sure not to look at the calves, and worked their way behind them, finally heading back toward the trailer and hazing the calves my way. I just tried to keep still and appear harmless.

It was obvious that the calves wanted to come closer to the trailer anyway, since they knew their mothers were in it now. I'm sure they were still too young to understand that their mothers were no use to them anymore.

They caught on that I wasn't so kind and benevolent when I dropped a loop over the first one's head, but I tried to work slowly as I made my way toward it and within fifteen minutes I could put my hands on my new little buddy without it freaking out. It wasn't happy about this development but it did settle down a little.

All my helpers came back to me then and I let Sky and the guys take over my captive to put it in the trailer while asking Louise to keep it in there after it was installed. They looked to weigh less than two hundred pounds each and the men didn't have much trouble picking it up and putting it in.

Meanwhile I was surprised that the others had moved even closer to us instead of running off. I guess they didn't have one fucking clue what to do on their own anyway and were just curious about what was happening. I looped another one and it didn't take half as long to settle it down.

An hour and a half later I was so proud of myself I could barely stand me. Not only did we have eight buffalo, we had the calves - three female and one male - loaded too. We piled back into the truck and headed for the ranch. Turned out it was a good thing Sky was riding in the back with the others, because Louise had some instructions for me.

It took the whole damned trip back to George's place for her to get me lined out, and if we hadn't spent time on English lessons the last two nights it would have taken longer.

Turns out she had already promised George two buffalo for the aid of Sky and his guys. I got the impression that if she'd known about my backward trailer trick she wouldn't have even let them come, but a deal was a deal.

When I'd complained that we couldn't deal with six buffalo to skin and process she let me know she knew that and that she was going to work out a trade with George. It sounded fine to me, and then she told me to stop. I did, and after I had she made me look right into her eyes.

What she did next was almost spooky, and it looked completely spooky. She was looking right into my eyes like I was hers and then she made her left eye go up and down while the right one kept looking right at me. After she shared that little trick she nodded her head up and down. She repeated the process but made her eye move right and left this time and then shook her head.

She was teaching me a signal and I was pretty damned sure that no one would ever notice it unless she showed them on purpose. She even let me see she could do the same thing with her right eye while the left one kept looking straight ahead.

The gist of it was, while Louise was working out her trade with George, she wanted me to nod my head if she moved her eye up and down and shake it if she moved it right and left. Hell, if she was going to all this trouble I'd make sure I didn't queer the deal.

I knew it had something to do with only men being officially able to make deals, and for my part I thought that was just stupid, but we didn't need to change a whole damned culture just to get rid of a few buffalo. I'd do my part if I could possibly get it right.

We took off again right away and drove up into George's camp. I don't know if Sky gave the call sign and I figured it didn't matter. There was no way in hell there could be someone else driving up in a pickup pulling a U-Haul.

Seemed like mostly I drove up to George's camp and just surprised the shit out of everyone there every time I came by. As they got out I noticed that Louise, Nancy, and Helen had self-satisfied smug looks on their faces and I wondered about it a little.

George came over and shook my hand asking me something that I didn't have a clue about while Louise hauled her cute little ass over to Junior's mother for a powwow. Sky broke the news to the gathering throng and there was no lack of surprised gasps. Come to think of it I guess it wasn't everyday they could have eight buffalo hauled up into their camp, not even mentioning the four live calves. I could just tell that Sky had mentioned them too though.

George took a glance back toward the camp and I saw Junior's mother give him a look. When she did he let me know we needed to talk in his tent. Looked like Louise's plan was coming together pretty quick.

Once inside, the bargaining began and I was mostly left out. George made some type of preliminary offer of something, Louise turned to me saying something about corn and beans and something else I didn't understand and then she gave me the not a chance sign and I had to shake my head side to side.

She did a little talking then and George looked like he was going to shake his head too but then I saw Junior's mother poke him in the ribs with a finger and he agreed. I guess she couldn't do the trick with her eyeballs. Louise turned to me and mentioned how nice my Lone Star was going to be tonight and then signaled for me to nod.

It almost threw me off and then I realized that she didn't want to be repeating the same English words in front of George and the woman, so I nodded and after about ten more minutes of yammering between them, George and I shook on it and we left the hut.

We were going to leave six buffalo here was the best I could make of it and I started wondering how we'd get it done without releasing the calves. I needn't have worried.

Louise let me know that she thought we should pull them out with a tree and a chain like we had the tanks, which she had also learned the name of. Hell, it suited me. Junior's mother pointed out the tree they wanted them by and I managed to back the trailer toward it.

Hell, I didn't even have to get out of the truck. Nancy, Helen, and Louise opened the doors and Louise went in to hook up the first to depart while Nancy and Helen stayed by the door and kept the kids inside. All I had to do was sit there, pull up when Louise signaled and then back up again after way more young men than were needed moved what I'd just dumped out of my way.

An hour and a half later we were leaving with our four calves, two dead buffalos, half a pickup bed full of corn, beans, peas, and other things I didn't recognize. Helen, Nancy, and Louise were also decked out in new outfits of the married Injun persuasion and had two more each wrapped up in bundles. Hell, I thought Louise had made a hell of a trade since it was no skin off my ass to kill all the buffalo as long as we were at it. I got a shock later when I found out that we had twice as much more in the way of vegetables that we were still owed.

I nearly asked her if she'd forgotten about trading some of the steel beer cooler pots but then bit my tongue. Louise hadn't forgotten a thing; she must want to trade those off later.

I knew we'd be late into the night getting the damned buffalo skinned and cut up but what the hell, it had to be done. I found out I was wrong about that too when we got to the trailer and got them unloaded.

Louise had me hoist them up to hang off stout tree limbs, as close to the camper as we could find available limbs and then she sent me off with the chainsaw for firewood while she, Nancy, and Helen got started gutting. Hell, I was glad to get out of that part and only too happy to let the chainsaw do most of my job.

She'd let me know that pine would work fine for what she wanted and I drove the pickup over near two that were only about fourteen inches in diameter and had at it.